It’s a difficult process, but we can help make it easier.

The unfortunate day has finally come. You’ve agonized on the possibility for a few months and you’ve finally come to the conclusion that the time has come to part with your beloved boat. A sale must be made, a good price must be negotiated, a good home must be found. You’re at the beginning of what may be a long journey of months. A good broker, specialising in buying and selling boats, will ease the pain. Additionally, a well-established, reputable one will give further peace of mind. You’ll find both at Pen Marine. Here’s what you can expect when you come to us.

Let’s talk price

The first question we always ask is the prospective selling price. Most owners would have a general price range in mind already. If not, that’s fine too. In either case, we will always do a thorough market research to ascertain a right price for the boat being sold. During this search, the price of vessels of similar size and value will also be found. Armed with data, we’ll then be able to present you our findings and advise accordingly.

Tell us about your boat

At the same time, we’ll want to know absolutely everything you know about your vessel. How old is she? What’s her service history? What’s her engine’s mileage? Where is she docked? Has she been recently refurbished? Did you add any features to the boat? Is there a particular feature that you enjoy and should be highlighted? What type of wood is she decked with? The more information you can give us, the better our marketing efforts will be. Prospective buyers really like it when the owner knows their boat. It shows that she is well cared for.

There’s no such thing as too many pictures

This really speaks for itself. Give us photographs of the boat at every angle and for every room. High quality photos will help sell the boat quicker. It’s even better if you have videos to complement the pictures.

Decide on a listing

If you do decide on using a brokerage service to sell, you need to know that there are two types of brokerage listings. The first is a central listing agreement. With this, the broker (or the agency) will manage all communication between you, and other brokers or buyers. The advantage of entering this agreement is the simplicity of it all. The seller will not have to receive the inevitable flood of calls and queries, and only need to rely on the expertise of his broker to get the sale. This is also a requirement to enter an international multiple listing service.

The other is an open listing agreement. Here the seller can list his boat with multiple different brokers. While it may seem counter-intuitive, open listings actually have less exposure than its counterpart. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, a broker will spend more resources on central listings, because the probability of returning revenue is higher, which is obvious. Secondly, as mentioned, an open listing will not be entered into any international multiple listing services, and thus it will receive less views.

Get a surveyor

It may seem like the job of the buyer, but we also highly recommend a full survey to be done for any boats going on sale. This surveyor should be an independent third-party and not affiliated to the broker. During the survey, we also recommend giving the boat a ‘haul-up’. This is where a crane will lift her out of the water, and the condition of the hull and propellers can be better ascertained. With a very recent survey report, buyers will have more confidence in the listing, and will be more inclined to view it.

Employing the service of a brokerage will definitely help to make the sale go smoothly from start to finish. Not only do we do help in determining a fair asking price, we are also able to prepare for additional marketing events like Open Days. There is also all that nitty gritty of boat ownership like certificates of ownership, bills of sales, transfer of titles, listing agreements, deposit requirements – in short, let professionals like us take care of the headache for you. After all, we do have over 30 years of experience in this industry.